Edwin Reed testifies:
Francis Bacon died in 1626, William Shakespeare in 1616 and Oxford in 1604.
------------------------------------------------- Date of last quarto | Changes made in the before publication of | 1623 Folio subsequent the 1623 Folio: | to date of last Quarto: ------------------------------------------------- Taming of the Shrew 1607 New title, 1000 new lines added, extensively rewritten ------------------------------------------------- King Lear 1608 88 new lines added 119 retouched -------------------------------------------------. Henry V 1608 New title, choruses and two new scenes added, text nearly doubled in length. ------------------------------------------------- Troilus & Cressida 1609 New title, prologue inserted. ------------------------------------------------- Titus Andronicus 1611 Entire new scene added ------------------------------------------------- Hamlet 1611 Many important omissions and additions ------------------------------------------------- Richard II 1615 Correction throughout version based directly on last quarto. ------------------------------------------------- Merry Wives 1619 1081 new lines added, much of text rewritten ------------------------------------------------- Henry VI Pt. 2 1619 New title, 1139 new lines added, 2000 old were retouched, version based on last quarto. ------------------------------------------------- Henry VI Pt. 3 1619 New title, 906 lines added, many old retouched. ------------------------------------------------- King John 1622 New title, 1000 lines added, one entire new scene, much dialogue rewritten -------------------------------------------------. Richard III 1622 193 new lines added, nearly 2000 retouched and based on last quarto. ------------------------------------------------- Othello 1622 160 new lines added, other important changes throughout text. -------------------------------------------------
"The hypothesis of the commentators, that all this new work on
[From Francis Bacon, Our Shake-speare, Edwin Reed, 1901, Kessinger Pub. Co.]
thirteen of the Shakespearean dramas (some of them becoming
practically new compositions in the process), was secretly left in
manuscript by the reputed author at his death and this was unknown
even to the publishers of his writings for a period of seven years
subsequent thereto, would not be tolerated under similar circumstances
in other fields of criticism for a single moment.
"Indeed, in the case of several of them, the author, if he died in 1616
or in 1604, must have left behind him unpublished two manuscript
copies of each, both being successive improvements on earlier editions,
and the less perfect one of the two, in every instance, was printed first."
